Biden couldn't name 'one accomplishment' at State of the Union: GOP congressman

Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) and Rep. Greg Steube (R-Fla.) slammed President Joe Biden and the Democratic Party after the State of the Union address for hypocrisy on COVID-19 mandates, energy and other issues.

Biden could not point to "one accomplishment" of his presidency, Perry said Wednesday.

Steube said that Democrats realized that COVID-19 policies were "not playing well," so they changed regulations one day before the State of the Union address.

"This has never been about the science," Steube told the "Just the News" TV show on Real America's Voice. "It never has been. It's always been about masking Republicans in using their authoritarian dictatorship. That is Nancy Pelosi in the House speakership to put their regime on the American people and Republican members of Congress."

Perry took a direct hit at Biden's address.

"If you listen to the President's speech, with all due respect, just completely disconnected, like literally completely disconnected from reality," the representative said. 

He said that it seemed like Biden thought his words would show support for police and border enforcement, "meanwhile, his actions ... prove exactly the opposite."

President Biden was met with a standing ovation when he told the State of the Union audience, "We should all agree: The answer is not to defund the police, the answer is to fund the police."

Steube blamed Democrats for the increase in police officer deaths.

"We've had a record number of law enforcement officers that were killed in the line of duty last year," he said. "And it's because of the rhetoric that was coming out of Democratic-run cities and states and up here in Washington," which "had a direct result of the way that our law enforcement officers were treated."

Steube denounced Biden's change in rhetoric.

"Now," he said, "Joe Biden's gonna say, 'Oh, we're not for defunding police. We're for funding the police,' despite the fact that for the last year, [Democrats have] said otherwise. Well, I think the American people are a lot smarter than that." 

In another example of evolving policy, Steube criticized Democrats' changing stance on COVID-19 mandates.

While mask rules changed, Steube accused Pelosi of suddenly implementing extensive COVID requirements just for the State of the Union address.

"Earlier today, I was allowed on the House Floor to vote," Rep. Steube wrote on Twitter shortly before the State of the Union. "No COVID test. No social distancing. No hand sanitizer requirement. Now, just a few hours later, there is an extensive list of requirements from Dictator Pelosi. How is that science?"

COVID-19 cases hit a record high in mid-January. The 7-day case average as of March 1, 2021, was just over 61,000, but this week the Biden administration changed its COVID-19 plan. Even chief White House Medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said he thinks America is coming to the point of "living with the virus."

Outside of the State of the Union COVID requirements, Steube said that after the mask mandates were dropped "suddenly, all these Democrats who were yelling at us Republicans for not wearing a mask around the Capitol are perfectly fine gallivanting around without a mask on."

Democrats have a "rules for thee, not for me type of mentality," Stuebe said.

Perry said the Democratic party has changed.

"I hate to tell people this if they haven't realized it already," he said, "but the Democrat Party that John F. Kennedy belonged to, that Harry Truman led, that party no longer exists."

Perry said Republicans need to move forward by showing Americans an alternative to failed Democratic policies.

"We must show a striking alternative to this crazy activist radical left wing policy," he said. "And that means we can't just say, 'Look how awful they are, vote for us.' We need to stand for something affirmatively and show how we would be markedly different. Not just that we're not as bad as them, but we're actually better than them."

President Joe Biden's State of the Union address came while his approval rating stands at 41.5% on average, according to FiveThirtyEight. His disapproval rating is 53.1%.